The Fences Between Us (Dear America)

by Kirby Larson

Book Overview

Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson brings us the first new Dear America diary in years, taking readers through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the start of World War II, and the Japanese incarceration.

With this sweeping tale of life on the World War II homefront, Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson brings her incredible talent to the Dear America series. When Pearl Harbor is attacked, America is finally unable to ignore the wars raging in Europe...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0545224187
• ISBN13: 9780545224185
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 8 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 9

Customer Reviews

Nasty used bandaid on book

This book is in bad condition. Very good condition is a joke it does not come near to that. I suppose the used band aid might have upset me more than the grated off corners of the book itself.

A Thriller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another great book in the Dear America series!!!!!!!!! Its during the time of Pearl Harbor. A must read!!!!!!!

Love this book!

I've just finished reading Kirby Larson's The Fences Between Us and learned more about what our Japanese American citizens had to endure during WWII than I ever learned from a history class. We re-live this tragic era in our history through the eyes of teen Piper Davis, whose father, a pastor for a Japanese Baptist church, decides to follow his congregants when they're sent to an incarceraton camp, bringing Piper with him. Larson's incredible artistry and skill is on full display as she creates a world that immerses you in the period and creates characters you don't want to say goodbye to, at the same time grounding her story in primary source details. I highly recommend this book to both middle grade students and teachers for use in history/social studies curriculum. Nothing draws students into history more powerfully than a beautifully told story!

So glad to see the return of this series!

When thirteen-year-old Piper Davis's older brother, Hank, joins the Navy after graduation from high school in 1941, she is mostly just sad because it will mean she won't get to see her beloved big brother for a long time. After Hank leaves home, a family friend gives Piper a diary, and she writes about school, her friends, her interest in photography, and the news of the wars in Europe and Asia, which seem far away and unlikely to affect her life. That all changes, however, on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, where her brother is stationed. From that day on, everything changes in Piper's life. The war and her worry for her brother's safety are constantly on her mind. And having grown up as the daughter of the pastor at a Japanese Baptist Church, she has many Japanese friends and neighbors. It saddens Piper to see the discrimination against the Japanese-Americans, many of whom were born in the United States. When the Japanese are forced to leave their homes, Piper's father decides to follow his congregation to the internment camp, and takes Piper with him. At first Piper deeply resents her father for taking her away from her home and friends. But she soon learns that what she has lost pales in comparison to the suffering of her Japanese friends and neighbors, incarcerated far from home in a place barely fit for humans to live in. As a long time fan of the Dear America series I was eagerly anticipating reading The Fences Between Us, the first new book in the series in several years, and I am happy to say I was not at all disappointed. Piper's diary is both entertaining and educational, bringing to life both everyday life for a young girl during World War II, as well as the wrongful incarceration of the Japanese-Americans in internment camps. I highly recommend this book to both old and new fans of the Dear America series.